


qmi | hello kitty cafe

by plincess_cho (ai_hao)



Series: The N Parallel Universes of QMi [1]
Category: Super Junior
Genre: Author: Ai, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-07
Updated: 2015-03-07
Packaged: 2018-03-16 17:14:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3496373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ai_hao/pseuds/plincess_cho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zhou Mi opens a Hello Kitty cafe. Kyuhyun sets up his wifi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	qmi | hello kitty cafe

Zhou Mi  _would_  be the only member of Super Junior to be overjoyed at becoming Sanrio’s newest ambassador in Korea. When Sanrio first approached him with their offer, Zhou Mi had been incredibly skeptical (not at all correlating with how incredibly judgy Kyuhyun was—still is about the whole thing), but once SM had decided it was a great idea to have their most successful solo artist open a pink Hello Kitty-themed cafe, Zhou Mi was fully on board.

  
“It’ll be soooooo cute!” he exclaims and then proceeds to spend every spare minute of their free time looking up anything and everything Hello Kitty related. Ryeowook offers to take him to the existing Hello Kitty cafe in Hongdae for inspiration, Sungmin donates one or two of his giant collection of pink things for the new venue, and Heechul decides that being helpful means directing him to websites filled with Hello Kitty-themed lingerie and other things not suitable for… anyone really.

(“HEECHUL, WHAT DID YOU DO TO ZHOU MI?” Han Geng yells after finding poor Zhou Mi sitting traumatized in the living room, trying not to look at anything or anyone.)

  
*

By the time construction is under way, Kyuhyun decides that if he ever sees Hello Kitty anything ever again he will stab his retinas with a fork. Zhou Mi prances around the dorms with the biggest smile on his face, and for Christmas, he buys each member something Hello Kitty-themed. Kyuhyun is not sure how he managed to find a Hello Kitty game controller that is actually more comfortable to use than his other one, but he did.

  
(Heechul also is amazed at his present: a Hello Kitty toaster. Ryeowook teaches him how to use it while Zhou Mi texts Puff again apologizing for the embarrassing husband she got saddled with on We Got Married.)

  
Kyuhyun is slowly warming up to the idea of a Hello Kitty Cafe, mainly because Zhou Mi is so damn excited about it. He remembers when Zhou Mi finally published his book (“glorified scrapbook” were Kyuhyun’s exact words) about his trip to Thailand. It was all egregiously pink and filled with snapshots of clothes, but it was so utterly Zhou Mi that Kyuhyun secretly enjoyed it.

  
(“Kuixian, you have to come to Thailand with me next time,” Zhou Mi says once they’re done flipping through his book.

  
“All you did was shop, Mi. I hate shopping.”

  
“There was food too!” Zhou Mi says indignantly. He flips the book open to a random page and jabs a finger at a photo. “See, food!”

  
Kyuhyun takes the book out of his hands and points at the rest of the photos on the page. “No, shopping.”

  
Zhou Mi realizes there’s no way he can win this argument so he offers a truce. “You carry my bags and I’ll buy you food?”

  
Kyuhyun agrees but only if there’s a lot of food.)

*

Super Junior and the appropriate Chinaline members are present at the opening of Zhou Mi’s Hello Kitty Cafe to generate publicity. There are also a lot of fangirls who appear to be from both Korea and China, with a few from Japan. The Sanrio representative hands Zhou Mi a pair of giant pink Hello Kitty scissors so he can cut the giant pink Hello Kitty ribbon that is stretched across the entrance of the cafe. Zhou Mi flashes a giant smile for the cameras (not that he hasn’t been grinning from ear to ear all morning) and snips the ribbon.

  
“Welcome to Zhou Mi’s Hello Kitty Cafe!” he announces first in accented Korean and then in flawless Chinese.

  
(Donghae had suggested that he also do it in English; after hearing Zhou Mi attempt to speak in English, Henry vetoed that idea real fast.)

  
The security guards hold the fangirls back long enough for the celebrities to go inside and take some promo shots. Zhou Mi quickly dons a pink Hello Kitty apron and slides behind the counter to take orders with the baristas who are equally attired in cutesy pink outfits. It takes all of Kyuhyun’s energy to look enthusiastic about all of the pink. Everything is pink, and everything is Hello Kitty.

  
The Super Junior members manage to escape right before the security guards let the fangirls come in. There’s somewhat of a mad dash for the counter, and Zhou Mi is thrilled. Kyuhyun sits in the van with his coffee drink and tries to rediscover his masculinity. Which is surprisingly hard to do while drinking a chocolate frappaccino out of a bright pink plastic cup with little Hello Kitty marshmallows sprinkled on the pink whipped cream.

  
Kyuhyun grunts and readjusts his crotch. “Boom, manly,” he grumbles to himself.

  
Before taking another sip of his chocolate frappaccino.

With whipped cream.

  
*

Kyuhyun is conveniently busy every time one of the members asks him to go over. Sometimes busy involves real things like schedules and recordings and airplane flights, but sometimes busy involves less legitimate things like “business meetings” with Changmin or late night “schedules” spent on Starcraft campaigns or very urgent “appointments” like going back home so his mom can cook for him. Very legitimate things.

  
Finally, Zhou Mi employs a tactic that he knows will work on Kyuhyun and Kyuhyun alone. “Kuixian, my cafe needs wireless internet and I don’t know how to set it up."

  
“Oookay,” Kyuhyun says after swallowing another mouthful of ramen. “Do you have a router?”

  
“A what?” Zhou Mi asks in confusion.

  
Kyuhyun rolls his eyes. “You don’t know what a router is?” Before Zhou Mi can respond, Kyuhyun continues, “Fine. Are you going to the cafe today?”

  
“Only until one, then I’m free,” Zhou Mi replies.

  
“Meet me at the electronics store afterwards, and I’ll help you get a wifi router and some range extenders,” Kyuhyun says.

*

 

It’s almost two when Zhou Mi finally appears at the electronics store in question. The second Kyuhyun sees his hands full of shopping bags, he just knows Zhou Mi found something (or multiple things) that he couldn’t resist on the way over. Again.

 

“Kuixian! I’m sooooooo sorry that I’m late!” Zhou Mi effuses, running over to Kyuhyun who has been examining game controllers that he doesn’t need for the past forty minutes. “I found the cutest set of oven mitts from the nicest ahjumma two streets over…” Kyuhyun listens to Zhou Mi jabber about his purchases for a few minutes as he steers the tall flailing beanpole towards the network products aisle.

 

After ten minutes and no help from Zhou Mi, Kyuhyun narrows his options down to two different models.

  
“Wait, why did we eliminate this one?” Zhou Mi asks, picking up one of the boxes Kyuhyun had discarded earlier.

  
“Because these two are both cheaper and better,” Kyuhyun explains.

  
“But this one is so cute!” Zhou Mi exclaims.

  
Kyuhyun rolls his eyes. “Mi, you can’t buy a router just because it’s cute. Excuse me!” he calls one of the salesmen over. “Which one of these models would you recommend?” He hands the man the two router boxes.

  
“Will you be using this at home or elsewhere?” the salesman asks.

  
“My friend wants to set up a wifi network at his cafe,” Kyuhyun replies. “We’re probably going to get one or two range extenders to go with it.”

  
“Oh, then you want this model,” the man hands him the box in his left hand. “The other one won’t connect to range extenders as well, but this is our best model. Unless you’re willing to spend a little more. In that case, you should go with this model,” he picks up a third box. “It’s our best selling router and all of our customers highly recommend it.”

 

Kyuhyun took one look at the price and coughed. “I think we’ll go with this one, thanks.”

  
“Do you need help picking out range extenders? Or any cables?” the man asks.

  
Kyuhyun shakes his head. “No, thanks though.”

  
“Please let me know if you need any more assistance,” the man bows and walks away to help someone else.

  
“Ooh he was cute,” Zhou Mi says once he’s out of earshot. “Even cuter than the router we can’t buy.” He tries to give Kyuhyun a pouty face, but his IT tech is already crouched down, sorting through another set of boxes.

  
“Alright, here we go.” Kyuhyun piles Zhou Mi’s already full arms with more boxes. “One router, a wifi box, two range extenders, a coaxial cable, and some ethernet cables. We should probably get you a power strip or two, since you don’t have any.”

  
Zhou Mi’s beams at him over the pile. “You’re the best, Kuixian!” His speech is accentuated with smiley faces and tildes, just like all the Post It notes Zhou Mi leaves him sometimes.

  
“Yeah well, you can buy me coffee,” Kyuhyun mutters, ducking his head.

  
They drag everything back to the cafe once it closes for the night. There’s no sense in trying to set up a wifi connection with a bunch of fangirls ready to take photos of his butt while he’s wedged under the counter with the router because of course, the Hello Kitty Cafe couldn’t be set up a network in-line in a nice place.

  
This way, the only person staring at his butt is Zhou Mi who is on call to help plug in any wires that need more than two hands. Zhou Mi tries not to giggle and has to try even harder not to “accidentally” nudge Kyuhyun with his foot to send him toppling onto the ground. But Zhou Mi would never do that. Neeeeeeever.

  
Once Kyuhyun is wandering around the cafe looking for the best place to set the range extenders, Zhou Mi sets about concocting something for Kyuhyun behind the counter.

  
“Zhou Mi, what do you want your wifi password to be?” Kyuhyun calls out. He has his laptop out and is continually switching tables to ensure that the wifi works splendidly everywhere.

  
“Uhh…” Zhou Mi thinks for a little bit as his runs the espresso machine. “Can’t you just do 12345678?”

  
Kyuhyun glares at him. “No, you have to pick something that’s going to be secure. You can’t pick a password that anyone can guess.”

“Okay, what about Hello Kitty?” Zhou Mi asks before running the steamer for the milk.

  
Kyuhyun glares at him again. “Okay, I’ll pick your password.” He types for a second, backspaces, and then types something else.

  
“Do I get to know what the password is?” Zhou Mi asks. He brings over two pink plastic cups on a pink serving tray shaped like a cute Japanese cat. Zhou Mi sets out two napkins with Hello Kitty’s face on them and sets Kyuhyun’s drink down for him.

  
“GaemGyu880203,” Kyuhyun replies, reaching for his drink.

  
Zhou Mi swats his hand away. “I have to give this to customers, Kuixian. Can you pick something that Heechul wouldn’t pick?”

  
“Fine,” Kyuhyun grumbles. “How about ZMH3LL0Kitty? With a three for the ‘e’ and a zero for the ‘o’?”

  
Zhou Mi unwraps a straw and sticks it in Kyuhyun’s drink. “Perfect.”

  
*

Kyuhyun promises himself he’ll never come back unless Zhou Mi messes up his wireless internet (the chances of that, he has to admit, are pretty high), but he ends up there the next week anyways. The wireless at the dorm died, and Kyuhyun knows he can convince Zhou Mi to give him free drinks and let him scam the cafe’s wifi. The wifi that he set up, lest Zhou Mi forget.

 

Then it turns into kind of a weekly thing. Any time Zhou Mi is there, Kyuhyun just happens to be “in the neighborhood” to stop by. One week, Zhou Mi forces a bright pink flowery punch card on him. Kyuhyun tries to refuse it, telling Zhou Mi that you only get stamps if you actually buy drinks, which he does not. Zhou Mi tells him that Kyuhyun paid for the drinks in wireless internet, and therefore gets stamps. Kyuhyun grumbles and shoves the card in the depths of his wallet… right behind the Pokemon collector’s cards he forgot that he had still in there, behind the two 1000 won notes.

  
“You’re just lucky I don’t have a girlfriend who might find this,” Kyuhyun grumbles.

  
Zhou Mi just pats his head patronizingly.

*

Kyuhyun tries his hardest to pretend that he doesn’t like spending afternoons in the Hello Kitty cafe. He most certainly does not like the free drinks nor does he like the fact that Zhou Mi makes him drink just the way he likes them (0% bitter and with the taro bubbles he likes) nor is the pink decor growing on him. Not at all. It does not feel familiar nor comforting nor completely and utterly Zhou Mi and he most certainly does not enjoy spending time with Zhou Mi.

  
“I thought you said you hated pink,” Zhou Mi says. His voice his muffled by his face mask. It’s spring and he acquired a nasty set of allergies. He has to blow his nose every other minute but he still wants to make an appearance for the fans and his loyal customers.

  
“I do hate pink,” Kyuhyun says. He’s already picked out all of the marshmallows from his drink and chomped the Hello Kitties in half, just for Zhou Mi’s benefit. Zhou Mi scrunches up his nose and sticks his tongue out at Kyuhyun.

 

“If you hate it so much, why do you keep coming here?” Zhou Mi asks knowingly.

 

“You have fast wifi,” Kyuhyun mumbles before taking a giant slurp of his drink.

 

Zhou Mi laughs and his friend’s ridiculousness. “You’re cute,” he says. "You need another drink?"

  
_end._  



End file.
